Bigos - Polish Hunter's Stew Recipe
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Date: 2019-07-25
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Comments and reviews: 9
Marcin Andrzejewski
In the kettles they were cooking bigos. In words it is hardto express the wonderful taste and colour of bigos and itsmarvellous odour; in a description of it one hears only theclinking words and the regular rimes, but no city stomach canunderstand their content. In order to appreciate Lithuanian songsand dishes, one must have health, must live in the country, andmust be returning from a hunting party. However, even without these sauces, bigos is no ordinary dish, for it is artistically composed of good vegetables. The foundationof it is sliced, sour cabbage, which, as the saying is, goes into themouth of itself; this, enclosed in a kettle, covers with its moistbosom the best parts of selected meat, and is parboiled, until thefire extracts from it all the living juices, and until the fluid boilsover the edge of the pot, and the very air around is fragrant withthe aroma. The bigos was soon ready. The huntsmen with a thricerepeated vivat, armed with spoons, ran up and assailed the kettle; the copper rang, the vapour burst forth, the bigos evaporatedlike camphor, it vanished and flew away; only in the jaws ofthe caldrons the steam still seethed, as in the craters of extinctvolcanoes - bigos description in Polish national poem Pan Tadeusz (XIXth century)
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In the kettles they were cooking bigos. In words it is hardto express the wonderful taste and colour of bigos and itsmarvellous odour; in a description of it one hears only theclinking words and the regular rimes, but no city stomach canunderstand their content. In order to appreciate Lithuanian songsand dishes, one must have health, must live in the country, andmust be returning from a hunting party. However, even without these sauces, bigos is no ordinary dish, for it is artistically composed of good vegetables. The foundationof it is sliced, sour cabbage, which, as the saying is, goes into themouth of itself; this, enclosed in a kettle, covers with its moistbosom the best parts of selected meat, and is parboiled, until thefire extracts from it all the living juices, and until the fluid boilsover the edge of the pot, and the very air around is fragrant withthe aroma. The bigos was soon ready. The huntsmen with a thricerepeated vivat, armed with spoons, ran up and assailed the kettle; the copper rang, the vapour burst forth, the bigos evaporatedlike camphor, it vanished and flew away; only in the jaws ofthe caldrons the steam still seethed, as in the craters of extinctvolcanoes - bigos description in Polish national poem Pan Tadeusz (XIXth century)
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sulaco33
So, I must say this recipe is - more or less - legit, though here in Poland for the amount of meat you put in the stew we would have at least twice as much cabbage and sauerkraut (by the way a lot of Polish bigos recipes list only fresh cabbage or only sauerkraut - I like to have them mixed. In my family we do not usually add wine to bigos. In many recipes that you may encounter, there is tomato pulp, concentrate or even ketchup (but that is not canonical, I would say) added to the dish. And in Poland, the meat proportions are usually quite different, favoring smoked meats (bacon, ribs and Polish smoked sausages) over just meat. Known recipes also include dried, smashed juniper fruit as a secret ingredient that makes all the difference but I personally do not think that they add much to the flavour. Anyway, great job, Chef.
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So, I must say this recipe is - more or less - legit, though here in Poland for the amount of meat you put in the stew we would have at least twice as much cabbage and sauerkraut (by the way a lot of Polish bigos recipes list only fresh cabbage or only sauerkraut - I like to have them mixed. In my family we do not usually add wine to bigos. In many recipes that you may encounter, there is tomato pulp, concentrate or even ketchup (but that is not canonical, I would say) added to the dish. And in Poland, the meat proportions are usually quite different, favoring smoked meats (bacon, ribs and Polish smoked sausages) over just meat. Known recipes also include dried, smashed juniper fruit as a secret ingredient that makes all the difference but I personally do not think that they add much to the flavour. Anyway, great job, Chef.
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trance917
I'm from Poland, and my father is a hunter. That being said, we never make bigos from wild game. It is always pork meat + sausage. Currently we can call it a hunters' dish, because hunters usually have bigos around a fire during winter hunts. Some recipes add bacon. One important ingredient is wild mushrooms (not champignons, but forest mushrooms like Boletus Edulis. In addition, there are 2 ways of making bigos. One is the wet version like you showed. The other one how we serve it at my home for Christmas and Easter. You make all the ingredients, squeeze the cabbage dry, put it in a large pot and go to a local bakery, where a friendly baker puts the pot into the baking oven for the night. That version is crispy and even more delicious: )
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I'm from Poland, and my father is a hunter. That being said, we never make bigos from wild game. It is always pork meat + sausage. Currently we can call it a hunters' dish, because hunters usually have bigos around a fire during winter hunts. Some recipes add bacon. One important ingredient is wild mushrooms (not champignons, but forest mushrooms like Boletus Edulis. In addition, there are 2 ways of making bigos. One is the wet version like you showed. The other one how we serve it at my home for Christmas and Easter. You make all the ingredients, squeeze the cabbage dry, put it in a large pot and go to a local bakery, where a friendly baker puts the pot into the baking oven for the night. That version is crispy and even more delicious: )
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BigBadBadger
Author's cooking skills are obviously great, but nobody in Poland is really doing bigos like that. You will typically use cabbage, pork (ideally polish sausage, but any pork will do if chunks are small, tomatoes (commonly replaced by tomato concentrate) and optionally mushrooms, and plum jam if you like sweet and fancy. And nobody in Poland calls it a hunter's stew, you can do it with wild meat, but why would you. That name came from comparison with hunter's stews from around the world. Again, I don't want to diminish the chef and most likely his version is delicious, it's just not very authentic: )
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Author's cooking skills are obviously great, but nobody in Poland is really doing bigos like that. You will typically use cabbage, pork (ideally polish sausage, but any pork will do if chunks are small, tomatoes (commonly replaced by tomato concentrate) and optionally mushrooms, and plum jam if you like sweet and fancy. And nobody in Poland calls it a hunter's stew, you can do it with wild meat, but why would you. That name came from comparison with hunter's stews from around the world. Again, I don't want to diminish the chef and most likely his version is delicious, it's just not very authentic: )
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Bartosz Baranowski
As folks said, its not bigos(and frankly it is a bit of insult to use german style cabage, cmon, but what also folks said: there is damn a lot of ways to prep it( though usually most of them share good part. The more you cook it, the better it gets. For me its a dish my great, great grandma cooked for every winter holiday. dark brown and full of tasty shrooms and meat. When she made it was tasty, rich and almost as corrosive as pineapple juice. Damn I miss that. Edit, what might be considered as hunters stew is either swiezonka or British Beans/Fasolka po Bretonsku.
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As folks said, its not bigos(and frankly it is a bit of insult to use german style cabage, cmon, but what also folks said: there is damn a lot of ways to prep it( though usually most of them share good part. The more you cook it, the better it gets. For me its a dish my great, great grandma cooked for every winter holiday. dark brown and full of tasty shrooms and meat. When she made it was tasty, rich and almost as corrosive as pineapple juice. Damn I miss that. Edit, what might be considered as hunters stew is either swiezonka or British Beans/Fasolka po Bretonsku.
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Paul Stallings
I'm curious if anyone out there has made this substituting kimchi for sauerkraut? I Just finished making this for the first time ever, traditionally as described with sauerkraut. Next time I'm thinking about substituting kimchi for sauerkraut as an experiment, as the part of Southern California I'm from it's easier to find really good kimchi than good sauerkraut, plus the added heat might be nice. I realize it's not traditional, but that's why I made it traditionally first so I'll have something to compare it to. Again curious if anyone's tried this.
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I'm curious if anyone out there has made this substituting kimchi for sauerkraut? I Just finished making this for the first time ever, traditionally as described with sauerkraut. Next time I'm thinking about substituting kimchi for sauerkraut as an experiment, as the part of Southern California I'm from it's easier to find really good kimchi than good sauerkraut, plus the added heat might be nice. I realize it's not traditional, but that's why I made it traditionally first so I'll have something to compare it to. Again curious if anyone's tried this.
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Frik Na luzie
1, 5 hour cooking? That's the MINIMUM The longer you cook bigos, the better it tastes. And the key to good bigos, is storing it in very cold conditions. Below freezing is ideal. Seriously, let it freeze solid. Also, you don't have to use raw meat at all - you can cook delicious bigos using only smoked meats - bacon, sausages, leftover ham etc. That's the greatest beauty of this dish - you can clean your fridge of leftovers making it, and it will still be delicious.
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1, 5 hour cooking? That's the MINIMUM The longer you cook bigos, the better it tastes. And the key to good bigos, is storing it in very cold conditions. Below freezing is ideal. Seriously, let it freeze solid. Also, you don't have to use raw meat at all - you can cook delicious bigos using only smoked meats - bacon, sausages, leftover ham etc. That's the greatest beauty of this dish - you can clean your fridge of leftovers making it, and it will still be delicious.
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Tomasz Nowak
I am sorry but whatever it, is, is not a Bigos You really put a lot of work into this video but this is not a traditional polish bigos, it is a simply a something makes I guess by the Polish diaspora in the US that is have nothing to do with a real polish national dish Anyway a good try And I am sorry to give you dislike But whatever it is it is nothing you claim to be Otherwise, a nice video and wonder what a dish is really called?
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I am sorry but whatever it, is, is not a Bigos You really put a lot of work into this video but this is not a traditional polish bigos, it is a simply a something makes I guess by the Polish diaspora in the US that is have nothing to do with a real polish national dish Anyway a good try And I am sorry to give you dislike But whatever it is it is nothing you claim to be Otherwise, a nice video and wonder what a dish is really called?
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R Hauser
It's obvious you are an aspiring comedian (but it turns out you are a natural) It is a wonderful accoutrement to your cooking. In the development of so many of your recipes your verbal, graphic and occasionally written directions are wonderful and indeed, unequaled. They are the most thorough and detailed I have seen available for a student from codger space like myself. Thank you. SincerelyRod
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It's obvious you are an aspiring comedian (but it turns out you are a natural) It is a wonderful accoutrement to your cooking. In the development of so many of your recipes your verbal, graphic and occasionally written directions are wonderful and indeed, unequaled. They are the most thorough and detailed I have seen available for a student from codger space like myself. Thank you. SincerelyRod
reply
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